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Descent to the Ocean

On our scuba-diving holiday in Jardines de la Reina (Cuba), we were lucky to saw a freediving action by a world champion freediver Guillaume Néry diving descent to the ocean. It was an awesome sight  and a special one as well to witnessed how he went down to the deep ocean by holding his breath without using any breathing apparatus.  Guillaume Néry was staying on the same area for a documentary film on the freediver. Jardines de la Reina was known for sharks diving destination. During our dive there, we were easily spotted tens of sharks at the same dive site. Freediver and sharks were certainly an interesting combination for a documentary.

Freediver in Bali

It was not the first time I saw a freediver swimming descent to the ocean during my dive. Freedivers and scuba divers are sometimes sharing similar dive spot. In Bali I saw a freediver descent in the middle of a school of fish. Pretty cool! Freediving has different practice than scuba diving though. It means diving free from breathing support equipment like tanks. The freedivers depend on their lungs to descent by holding their breathe until they return to the surface. Holding breathe is not advised in scuba-diving as it may caused lung over expansion.

Have you seen Guillaume Néry in action? Here is one of his freediving action videos that created by his partner who is an amazing freediver as well,  Julie Gautier.

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100 Comments »

  1. Incredible…the amount of positive envy I have right now is an all-time high. Loved this post, and your first photo is the best I’ve seen this year ~ light, detail but mostly this diving into adventure. Have you ever seen the movie ‘The Big Blue’? I saw it as a kid, and was absolutely mesmerized by the lifestyle and adventure of free divers… Very cool.

    • Thank you Randall! Maybe free diving activity for the next holiday relaxation ;)? I have never seen the movie, I just read its summary in IMDB, I will definitely look for the DVD to watch it 🙂 Thank you for the recommendation!

      • My memory of it is pretty intense and special (of course I was just a kid at the time), I too want to see it again… Being totally one with the water 🙂

            • Hi Randall, finally I watched it! I have no idea about Jacques Mayol until I watched the movie. What a talented person he was! Now I am wondering about his book on Homo Delphinus – he was totally crazy about the dolphins 😀 😀 I will look at the library for his book 😉 Thanks so much for introducing me to the movie!

              • Very happy you liked it ~ I did not know about his book, so now I will have to check that out as well. I like his idea and theories about man’s relationship with the sea, and his question of human’s aquatic origin. Thank for introducing it to me 🙂

  2. WOW, WOW, WOw! I have never heard of free diving in the ocean… this video gave me gooseflesh! Seeing him standing on the edge of that underwater cliff and just jumping. What skill to be able to hold your breath for that long. Thanks for sharing this amazing video, Indah. Your photograph is beautiful BTW, I love the diagonal streams of light.

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